When oregano plants flower it means that the plants have reached maturity and they’re ready to produce seeds.
You can remove the flowers to prevent the plants going to seed too quickly or allow the plants to bloom and enjoy the beautiful flowers in your garden.
In this article I’ll show you five ways to use oregano flowers from your herb garden.
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Oregano is a popular herb that is grown right around the world for culinary use.
While most gardeners grow oregano for its aromatic leaves, the plants also produce beautiful flowers that can be white, pink or light purple in color.
Oregano leaves taste best before the flowers bloom but the flowers are also edible and they’re great for attracting bees, butterflies and lots of other pollinating insects to your garden.
When does oregano bloom?
Oregano begins blooming in late spring or early summer depending on the variety.
The flowers are tiny, only measuring about 3 to 4 mm, but each flower spike has an abundance of flowers on it. [1]
The spent flowers can be removed to keep the plants looking tidy and once the plants have finished flowering you can cut the plant down to ground level.
Oregano is a perennial herb so it will grow back the following year.
How to stop oregano flowering
You can delay oregano plants from blooming by regularly pinching back the tips of the plants.
Pinching the tips back makes the plants bushier and more full looking.
Can you harvest oregano after it flowers?
Oregano leaves can be harvested during or after the plant has flowered but the taste will be milder or more bitter, depending on the variety.
How to use oregano flowers from your garden
1. Make a fresh flower arrangement
Oregano flower spikes can be picked straight from the garden to make a beautiful fragrant flower arrangement.
You can also combine oregano flowers with lavender, mint or thyme flowers if you have them growing in your garden.
2. Cook with them
Oregano flowers can be used in any dish that you would normally add oregano leaves to.
The flowers will give your food a more subtle flavor than the leaves.
Try adding the flowers to pizza, pasta sauce, salad dressing or use them as a garnish for your meals.
3. Herbal tea
Herbal tea made from oregano flowers has a milder taste than tea made from the leaves.
You can make oregano tea from fresh or dried flowers and leaves.
4. Leave them in the garden
Oregano plants produce an abundance of flowers so they look great in the garden when they’re blooming.
Allowing the plants to bloom means that you’ll attract lots of bees, butterflies and other pollinating insects to your herb garden and these insects will pollinate other plants in your garden as well.
5. Collect the seeds
Instead of buying oregano seeds to plant, you can easily collect the seeds from your plants.
After the plants have finished flowering, leave a few flowers on the plant until they turn brown in color.
Cut the flowers off with a pair of sharp scissors, place them in a paper bag and leave it in a cool, dry place for about two weeks.
Remove the dried oregano flowers from the paper bag and gently crush the flowers to release the seeds.
Store the oregano seeds in an envelope to plant the following year.
What type of oregano has white flowers?
Italian oregano produces spikes of small white flowers in early summer.
It grows 12 to 24 inches (30 to 60 cm) tall to form a rounded clump.
So there are my tips for using oregano flowers from your garden.
I hope this article has inspired you to make use of the beautiful flowers from your oregano plants.
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Do you let your oregano plants bloom? Let me know in the comments below.
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I always leave my Italian and Greek Oregano to flower. I love seeing the pollinators enjoying them.
Great suggestion on cooking with the flowers. I let both Italian and Greek oregano flower because typically they have flowers before most other things in my yard for our pollinators. After 4 years of blooming, none of them are flowering, even though they have lots of small green things that look like potential buds. I can’t seem to find any info on why.